UCI approves more teams for 2012 WorldTour

Ag2r-La Mondiale, Euskaltel-Euskadi and FdJ will participate in the 2012 WorldTour, the UCI announced on Monday.

Thomas Voeckler's long run in yellow during the 2011 Tour de France couldn't get his Europcar squad into the 2012 WorldTour. Photo: Graham Watson | grahamwatson.com

Ag2r-La Mondiale, Euskaltel-Euskadi and FdJ will participate in the 2012 WorldTour, the UCI announced on Monday.

But applications from Radio Shack-Nissan-Trek and GreenEdge have yet to be approved. The UCI said its Licensing Commission “is currently waiting for the teams to provide additional documents.”

And the UCI rejected outright the application of Team Europcar, whose Thomas Voeckler had a long run in yellow during the 2011 Tour de France, while the financially strapped Geox-TMC withdrew its application.

The Spanish-registered squad, which lost its title sponsor earlier this fall and is battling for survival, missed the deadline to meet financial requirements for a WorldTour ride, but hopes to secure enough backing to continue as a Professional Continental squad next season.

“Despite the crisis the world economy is now facing, we have contacts with potential sponsors for next season,” sport director Josean Fernández Matxín told the Spanish sports daily Marca earlier this month. “We are going to keep fighting to maintain the team in the second division, but, for that we need a sponsor. These types of things take time, sometimes we are encouraged, but right now we need something firm.”

The Licensing Commission confirmed that both Europcar’s and Geox-TMC’s applications had been forwarded to the UCI administration “so that the latter may assess the possibility of registering these teams as Professional Continental teams.”

After hearings held November 15-18, the commission also approved three-year WorldTour rides for Katusha and Lotto Belisol; a two-year-license for Omega Pharma-Quick Step; and a one-year license for Saxo Bank.

WorldTour teams for 2012

Ag2r-La Mondiale

Astana

BMC Racing Team

Euskaltel-Euskadi

FdJ

Garmin-Cervélo

Katusha

Lotto Belisol

Lampre-ISD

Liquigas-Cannondale

Movistar

Omega Pharma-Quick Step

Rabobank

Saxo Bank

Sky Procycling

Vacansoleil-DCM

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Antonio Pesenti reaches the summit of the Col du Galibier during the 1931 Tour de France in this photography courtesy of VeloPress from Goggles and Dust: Images from Cycling's Glory Days from The Horton Collection. Buy this book